In February 2012 I had an incident involving an International Energy Services operator. International Energy Services contract for Shell Australia here in Western Australia and maybe elsewhere in Australia. I documented my experiences with International Energy Services on my blog.

Recently I was contacted by another cyclist who has also experienced careless driving by International Energy Services which makes me wonder what it is going to take for International Energy Services and for that matter Shell Australia to understand what their responsibilities are on the road and to take steps to ensure that cyclists are not bullied, that they are not threatened or worse

In light of this latest incident I have emailed Shell Australia for an explanation and I have again brought my concerns to the attention of Mr Vin Stenta, Chief Executive Officer of International Energy Services via an email to his company email address. I don't expect a response from Mr Stenta as he ignored me in the past, but I think it is important to bring these matters to his attention. Hopefully it will make him accountable in some way.

My email to Mr Stenta sent this evening follows along with the videos.

Any suggestions on how to handle this better or others to contact?

Dear Mr Stenta

It seems that despite "your" assurances you clearly lack a understanding of your occupational health and safety responsibilities and that you need to take competent steps to ensure your operators operate your vehicles in safe manner when on the road.

I suggest you think very carefully about your failure to respond in a responsible manner to this incident in February 2012 as once again your operators are putting cyclist lives at risk as documented here. This incident in October 2012 involves another cyclist (not myself in this instance) so clearly your "toolbox" is seriously lacking.

Mr Stenta enough is enough so Shell Australia have now been advised of your operators behaviour and they have been asked to explain how your mode of operation meets their occupational health and safety standards and why they continue to contract to an company that puts their customers at risk.

I hope this time Mr Stenta you will act with integrity and address the systematic occupational health and safety failures within your company before someone pays the ultimate price.

Please post full details of everything on every cycling website you can find, including facebook, BUG's etc, copy in Shell.

It can have an impact.

I will get you started, please note my response to this thread below:

Dear fellow cyclist,

As the CEO of an organisation that runs a number of vehicles, I have switched all of my fleet to an alternate fuel provider - I will no longer consider using Shell for any of our fuel or similar needs.

I have had some great 'success' in dealing with my local police station (you can find the thread on here somewhere) - the police were very professional and understanding, took it upon themselves to investigate the matter and issue a warning to the driver.

The police in my area seem interested in actually creating a safer environment and safer roads (although some other cylclist have had less success, I could not be more pleased with the response from the police)

Please also note that company has responsibilities under various Workplace Health and Safety legislation to maintain safe work practices for their employees and the public, as such I would note the incident to relevant authorities.

All it takes is a letter to a few key people - police, local Council, workcover (or equivalent) supported by evidence and see what happens.

Can I also say that, from experience as in the development industry, these sorts of things will get brought up next time the company wants to build a new service station or depot, or alter their approved operating hours/truck movements etc. Sometimes, these sorts of things seem minor to them now, but can come back and bite the company big time when they spend $4 million to buy a new depot site, only to find that relevant authorities object to its construction based on the fact that it may cause unsafe traffic movements...

Hello Andrew. Thanks for the comment. Shell expects all its contractors to adhere to the road rules, defensive driving techniques and journey management planning when doing business on behalf of Shell. If the community has a concern over the behavior of any of our contractors, then Shell will investigate in conjunction with that contractor. We will speak directly to IES about this situation.

We have Workcover here they come down on companies like a ton of bricks sometimes...The only other thing that may be worth considering is inviting anyone who thinks the moves are safe to experience the experience ( You can't guarantee they might be accidentally killed ) see if they take up the offer ...Other than that a bond bicycle...

AndyTheMan wrote:Could I also suggest that you report the incident to local police?

I have had some great 'success' in dealing with my local police station (you can find the thread on here somewhere) - the police were very professional and understanding, took it upon themselves to investigate the matter and issue a warning to the driver.

+1

I'd have thought that just showing that first video of the truck sheering past you would convince most that this driver is a renegade in need of counselling/convicting

You could also forward the video and correspondence to the department of transport WA. They have the ability to penalsie drivers for not adhering to aspects of the transport code, I'm not sure about clear traffic infringements such as that left hook, but they do take driver safety where large combination vehicles are involved very seriously in other states IME. Considering the driver is operating a vehiocle used for transporting dangerous goods I think they might be less than impressed with his driving.Had the tankers been marked with Shell insignia, I would think Shell would take a pretty dim view of that behaviour

newbikeorupgrade wrote:We have Workcover here they come down on companies like a ton of bricks sometimes...

Past experience with Worksafe WA suggests that this approach is pointless; well for something like the February incident at least I wouldn't bother putting the time and effort in again to try and progress the response.

Andrew

Last edited by Aushiker on Tue Nov 20, 2012 1:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

AndyTheMan wrote:Could I also suggest that you report the incident to local police?

I have had some great 'success' in dealing with my local police station (you can find the thread on here somewhere) - the police were very professional and understanding, took it upon themselves to investigate the matter and issue a warning to the driver.

+1

I'd have thought that just showing that first video of the truck sheering past you would convince most that this driver is a renegade in need of counselling/convicting

The incident involving myself (the February incident) was reported to the Police. Close passing is in itself not an offence in WA it would seem. Even getting directed to the kerb didn't cut the mustard either. I have come to the conclusion one needs to be actually hit first.

warthog1 wrote:You could also forward the video and correspondence to the department of transport WA.

Interesting thought but I would need to know the relevant legislation to support any statement and really don't have the time or inclination for this incident to go that trouble. Some battles are worth fighting some are not.

A small update. I have received an email from Mr Vin Stenta at International Energy Services.

Thank you for your email. Unfortunately I am not aware of the other incident you are referring to. Can you please provide me with some details l so that I am able to investigate this matter and provide you with feedback.

I assume that the other incident is the February one so his response is rather curious given there where a few emails going back and forward between myself and executives at International Energy Services and they where all cc to Mr Stenta AND I included links to the blog posting on the February incident in my email. There are also comments posted by some of his executives on the blog posting. Seems he has some communication issues within his organisation or of course Shell Australia has had a chat.

Oh I nearly forgot. I also wrote an old school letter to Mr Stenta and included a DVD of the video in February 2012. He never replied to that either.

AndyTheMan wrote:Could I also suggest that you report the incident to local police?

I have had some great 'success' in dealing with my local police station (you can find the thread on here somewhere) - the police were very professional and understanding, took it upon themselves to investigate the matter and issue a warning to the driver.

+1

I'd have thought that just showing that first video of the truck sheering past you would convince most that this driver is a renegade in need of counselling/convicting

The incident involving myself (the February incident) was reported to the Police. Close passing is in itself not an offence in WA it would seem. Even getting directed to the kerb didn't cut the mustard either. I have come to the conclusion one needs to be actually hit first.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXxPN9ZwBdY&hd=1[/youtube]

Andrew

Andrew. Without trying to be inflammatory, may I ask why you were not using, what appears to be a very smooth and uncluttered bike path to the left?

Andrew's earlier post will no doubt answer your question quite well. I would like to point out a couple of things

1. A "very smooth and uncluttered bike path" to all appearances of a motorist, may in fact be far from it when it comes to riding a bike along, especially if you are going somewhere quicker and the path is full of walkers, dogs and kids on bikes.

2. Let the driver decide his/her own route. Why is this question always thrown at cyclists? There is no legal requirement to ride on an off-road path. Why do we not ask the truck driver why he chose to drive this narrow road when there is a perfectly good freeway just nearby?

il padrone wrote:2. .... Why do we not ask the truck driver why he chose to drive this narrow road when there is a perfectly good freeway just nearby?

I suspect that has something to do with the "scenery" particularly in summer along this route ... the traffic picks up and banks up considerably at times over summer . The residents have raised concerns I believe about the "traffic without purpose" on this particular road.

Anyway this has zilch to do with International Energy Services other than to illustrate my frustration with the interpretation of unsafe passing laws in WA and hence why the Police did zilch about the International Energy Services truck in February. I don't know if the cyclist involved in the second incident reported it to the Police or not. Haven't had any more contact since his initial raising of the matter with me.

Yeah cool, I'll head over and read the thread. As I said wasnt trying to be an A@# Hole, just curious. And il padrone, I was asking the question from the perspective of a cyclist, not a motorist. I have no doubt from watching the video that the the driver of the truck was being an A grade, solid gold F@#K WIT. At best he was incompetant to safely pass. Either way he shouldn't be on the road. From the video It appears the bike path was the ideal route and wasnt aware there was an explanation in another thread.

AKO wrote: And il padrone, I was asking the question from the perspective of a cyclist, not a motorist.

Yep, no grief. I realised you have a cyclist's perspective - it's just that I hear this sort of comment all the time from friends and bogans alike. Where it's a cyclist 'infringing' on motorists right to free travel, they don't seem to think the cyclist should have any choice over where and how he/she travels.

Ive had the same argument with my own sister. "Why cant you just use the bloody path the council built for you?" For the most part I will, unless it's safer to use the road (she didnt seam to understand). Unfortunately the level of self righteousness seams to increase in proportion to the size of the vehicle being driven.

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